New EU Regulations Cripple Miniatures Industry

One day people will realize just how ridiculous the European Union is, unfortunately it will take something bigger than toy industry regulations for it to happen.

http://bleaseworld.blogspot.com/2013/04/new-eu-regulations-hit-wargames-industry.html?m=1

I remember when New York State wanted to ban lead and the miniatures companies panicked and produced new compounds, like Rallidium. I can't imagine what effects this has for Games Workshop, Foundry, Perry, and Hasslefree.

The one thing I don't always remember is just how many hours my fellow European bloggers are ahead of me. ;-)

Happy Easter!

For those of you who celebrate, have a blessed Easter.  For the rest of you, go out and get some sun!  It's been a long cold Winter.  Enjoy the sun!

Zombiesmith Quar Tanks

It's been a month of third-party vehicles and contraptions for Gnome Wars for sure!

Zombiesmith announced the release of two new vehicles for the Quar line:

The first tank is a nice compact variant of a classic WWI tank.  The second one looks more like a mobile artillery emplacement, and I love it.

Check out http://www.zombiesmith.com/ for more info.

Empire of the Dead Steam Gyrocopter

Although I haven't supportedany, I've mentioned a number of Kickstarters that I deemed worthy of someone pitching in.

One that does NOT tickle my fancy is West Wind Production's Empire of the Dead, a 28mm minis game set in a "Dark and Gothic, Steampunk Victorian Empire."

I don't like the individual minis at all.  They remind me of the Darkstalkers video game, which was fun to play, but the characters were designed in that "I'm uber-cool, flashy, and spikey!  Wooo-oooo!" way.

Since Jim "The Gnome Guy" has been doing a number of conversions, this one item they're producing caught my eye.

The gyrocopter will be coming with it's own pilot, but with minor modification, I can imagine the German HMG figure piloting this.

The Apathy of New Releases (April '13)

Between family life, daily blog postings, and actually getting to paint, I completely forgot that the next month's soliciations through Alliance, Game Trade Magazine was available.

Unfortunately, my column's title doesn't dissapoint me personally.  Apathy does that.

My Must Have List
In a post-tax return spending spree time, there's nothing that tickles my fancy

My Money is No Object ListI do have a couple of options here:

Koplow Games - Spotzee Dotzee $9.00 - Koplow is a survivor from ye olden days of gaming.  A family focused dice game?  Sure.  As a store, I'd see about a small rack of them.

Mayfair - Gangs of New York Board Game $35.00 - I love the concept, I just hope the mechanics are there.
Steve Jackson Games- OGRE Dice $6.95 -  You can never have enough OGRE dice!

My Imaginary Store List
For a second straight month, Alliance does a good job listing a lot of existing product again.   The only thing of note that I saw was the mother of all OGRE boxed sets was listed again, which means Alliance might have some inventory.  I sure as heck know it's not a reprint!

Antimatter Games
Deepwars  28mm underwater minis game. Mix Captain Nemo with the Little Mermaid, that's the feel I get from it.  I would love to know the difference between the Deluxe ($59.99)  versus Basic ($34.99) starter packs.  At least the rulebook goes for $29.99.

Asmadi
We didn't Playtest This At All  - card game for 2-10 players
We didn't Playtest This Either - standalone or expansion.
Card game of the month.  Get the equivilent of a display and sell like mad. By September the next big wacky card game is around and hopefully a solitary copy gets pushed to the back.

Asmodee
Formula De Expansion 4 - Buddh, India and a Baltimore street course.

Atlas Games
Ars Magica - Tales of Power

Catalyst
Battletech Field Manual 3145   $39.99
Shadowrun Crossfire                $49.95
Shadowrun Introductory Boxed Set $49.95
Shadowrun 5th Edition Core Rulebook  $59.99

Cryptozoic
The Walking Dead Card Game $15.00 - Another card game to get in five or six copies.  Hopefully this can be reordered when the next season is ready... and Christmas.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT TCG: TIMEWALKERS - REIGN OF FIRE - I usually mention this as CCGs usually sell and this still seems popular.  Big typo on the form though.  I really hope the boosters are $3.99 and the "Epic Packs" full of boosters and other accessories goes for $39.99
The Design Mechanism
Runequest Book of Quests $19.00
Runequest Monster Island $22.00
Holy Crap!  Runequest!


Evil Hat Productions
Spirit of the Century Race for the Hat Board Game  $30.00

Expeditious Retreat Press
Advanced Adventures #29 The Doom of Red Rauthim  $12.00

Fantas Flight Games
BLACK CRUSADE RPG: THE TOME OF EXCESS  $39.95

Goodman Games
DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSICS  #77: THE CROAKING FANE  $9.99

Louis Porter Jr Design
PATHFINDER: ENEMIES OF NEOEXODUS - FIRST ONES  $15.99
PATHFINDER: ENEMIES OF NEOEXODUS - FOLDING CIRCLE $15.99

Mayfair
Road Rally USA  $35.00

Mongoose
LEGEND RPG: THE SPIDER GOD’S BRIDE - Fully revised for the Legend RPG system,
The Spider-God’s Bride is a collection of ten blood-red, sword and sorcery adventures, inspired by the pulp era tales of Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Venture in the footsteps of Conan
the Cimmerian, Satampra Zeiros of  Uzuldaroum, Imaro of Nyumbani, and other fabled thieves, reavers, and slayers! Scheduled to ship in June 2013. MGP 8302 ..............................$29.99
I swear this was solicited before, but it still sounds awesome!

Nevermore publishing
MARS NEEDS MECHANICS - London, 1873 — The Royal Academy of Space Exploration has announced its intention to launch a mission to Mars by year’s end. In its quest to claim, fully explore, and map the great red planet, the Academy is holding recruitment competitions for various positions on the crew. In Mars Needs Mechanics, players represent engineers and tinkerers from all over the Empire competing for a spot on the crew of the H.M.S. Victoria VII. Scheduled to ship in May 2013.................  $40.00


Osprey Publishing
THE NAZI OCCULT  by  Ken Hite
In the dark dungeons beneath Nazi  Germany, teams of occult experts delved into ancient and forbidden lore, searching for lost secrets of power. Ordered by Hitler to discover new weapons that he could unleash on his enemies, the occultists experimented with dark magics, mystical artifacts, and creatures thought only to exist in nightmare. This book tells the complete history of the Nazi occult programs, from their foundations in  Hitler’s early esoteric studies and the Nazi quests for the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Destiny, and the Holy Grail, through their experiments with lycanthrope  and zero-point energy. Scheduled to ship June 2013. OSP ..........................$17.95
Anything written by Hite is worth at least stocking, plus it's an amusing subject.
Paizo
PATHFINDER ADVENTURE  REIGN OF WINTER PART 5 - RASPUTIN MUST DIE  $22.99
PATHFINDER CAMPAIGN  SETTING: THE WORLDWOUND $19.99
PATHFINDER ITEM CARDS: ICONIC EQUIPMENT  $10.99
PATHFINDER MAP PACK: FOREST TRAILS $13.99
PATHFINDER PAWNS: BESTIARY 2 BOX  $39.99
PATHFINDER PLAYER COMPANION: PATHFINDER SOCIETY PRIMER   $12.99
PATHFINDER TALES: THE WIZARD’S MASK  by Ed Greenwood  $9.99
Oooh Ed Greenwood.  Worth a sale or two if your costumer base was out of diapers in the 80's and 90's
Reaper:
They continue to relase more product for their BONES lines, but they're not ignoring their metal lines.  I'd say with the huge BONES solicits, it's still 75% plastic/25% metal.  I was going to put the Chronoscope NOVA soldiers on my money is no object list as cheap bulk sci-fi soldiers/planetary police, but upon further inspection, they look like ass.  Their modern stuff is very hit and miss.


USAopoly
Big Bang Theory Clue!


Wizards of the Coast
MAGIC THE GATHERING CCG: MODERN MASTERS BOOSTER DISPLAY (24)  $167.76
Only WotC can reprint existing cards which should be relatively easy to obtain, but with new artwork and still sell millions. Perhaps not the normal cash cow, but budget some money for a case or seven.
Wizkids
PATHFINDER BATTLES: BUILDER SERIES - WE BE GOBLINS

Zveda
SAMURAI BATTLES MINIATURES
I finally saw a good quanity of Zveda at Cold Wars, and it certainly needs a good display.  The boxes are designed to just melt into the walls of other models the hobby shop offers. Of note here are the Ninja Attack playset at  $50 and the Samurai Battles offered again at $80.  A good display and some examples of the figures and this could be veeeerrrrryyyy profitable.

54mm Stable for Little People

Part of my treasures from Cold Wars every year is always something from the All the Kings Men booth.

I think it's out of guilt that I can't find the time or the players to play AWI.  Part of it may be that in a previous life almost twenty years ago, ATKM owner Ken Cliffe was editor of White Wolf Magazine and gave me my first gaming related "job" as one of the RPG line reviewers in the back of the magazine.

At recent cons, I've moved from buying up a unit at a time and tossing them into the box in the garage, never to see the light of day, to snagging up terrain: trees, river sets, and haystacks.  This year was their new unpainted stable in a lightweight foam resin.

Unlike the haystacks and the bridges, the stable is a bit big for gnomes.  I might be able to pull off a full sized barn, but even then the doors are enormous.  No worries, as I'll make this the centerpiece for the kid's Easter game this weekend.  Perhaps there shall be a "Battle at the Farm."

In a world of Little People, 30mm Gnomes are rather tiny

We do use a lot of Little People in the kids games (they are 2 and 4), and they just about a perfect size


The Highwaymen attempt to rob the Princess

One of the factors in purchasing this was that the foam resin felt like Styrofoam, but was very resilient against normal wear and tear.  It's a goner if the dog gets it, or I sit on it, but the kids are very good with Daddy's "gnomes" of all shape and sizes.

Painting wise, I had a few disasters.  Since the kids normally paint their own things while I do, I set them up first before getting mine ready.  However, when I finally got the chance to sit down, I discovered that they somehow snagged up all my new paintbrushes.  Gah!  Fortunately, I still had a few oversized brushes to add base coats and the six layers of drybrushing for the wood.    I got a lot of paint on other figures this weekend, but this is the only thing I completed.

Teddy's Rough Riders.... on Harleys?

While I've admitted being rather nonplussed about Alien Dungeon's Fanticide, the more I look at their second project, All Quiet on the Martian Front, the more I realize I just need to hit the lottery and take the plunge into 15mm Victorian/Great War Sci-Fi.

When I was at Cold Wars, I managed to take a couple bad pictures of the models at the Alien Dungeon booth.

Martian Walker

Baby Walkers?

Tanks and Artillery

While I love some of the 25-30mm Martian stuff that's out there, like Eureka's, 15mm is better suited for large scale warfare.  Plus the tanks and artillery are calling my name everytime I see them.   The Mark III Baldwins are just screaming Gnome Wars. 

The next thing to get me all in a dither were pictures and descriptions of the "Rough Riders on Early Harleys."  The pics are pretty basic (and they are 15mm, so they can't get too crazy):

Rough Riders - or "Teddy's Own," as they like to call themselves - are some of the bravest (some say foolhardy) volunteers in the army. Operating in small squadrons, they are equipped with grappling launchers. They ride at breakneck speeds on their Harley motorcycles around the feet of the advancing tripods. Once a few grapnels have landed in the works of the Martian machines, the Rough Riders race around in circles, binding the thing's legs together, and getting it to topple, or at the very least be stuck immobile. The tactic does work on occasion, at least enough to inspire more volunteers for the heavy losses incurred by these units.

So essentially the Rough Riders have turned into Snow Speeders toppling AT-ATs in Empire Strikes Back?

Bully!